vas Normandy
by ElectricZ
Summary: ME2: Tali saved her father's reputation and prevented a civil war. The cost? Exile from the Migrant Fleet. But as the saying goes, home is where the heart is. Rated T for some language. One-shot. Not a shipfic.


_**A/N - ****This is just a couple of snippets from **_**For Tomorrow We Die_ that combined make a nice little one-shot. Would happen after _Second _but before _Tomorrow's Dawn_ in relation to my other fics._  
**

* * *

"Did you find anything on the _Alarei _that could clarify what happened there?"

Hundreds of quarians stared down at Tali from the tiered benches in the Assembly Garden, but she did not acknowledge any of them. Her eyes were locked on Commander Shepard as he approached the raised dais where the Admirals presided. They had found evidence... indisputable, undeniable proof that her father was guilty of everything for which they blamed him: weapons tests, AI experimentation, and worst of all, willfully circumventing safety procedures which resulted in the deaths of everyone aboard the _Alarei_. The fleet would tear itself apart if the truth came out, and then the Citadel Council would swoop in and further cripple them by imposing sanctions for continuing the crimes their ancestors had committed that sparked the geth uprising in the first place.

It would be the end of the quarian people. Still, she could only see Commander Shepard. Because of quarantine, he wore his combat helmet at all times, which obscured his entire face except for his eyes. She found the appearance of humans tolerable at best. Like quarians, they had the same bilateral symmetry that most species in Citadel space shared in common, two eyes, one nose, one mouth... But the uneven distribution of their hair on their bodies always struck her as unhealthy, and their smooth brown skin was nothing like hers, their eyes bizzare by quarian standards.

It struck her as odd that now she had to to look upon Shepard he always saw her. All she could see were his eyes; dark, sensitive, still attractive, though non-reflective. She always liked the radial pattern in his irises that seemed to glitter in light. Even when she could see his face, though, she always focused on his eyes when they talked, especially in those moments when he looked directly back as if he could see through her semi-opaque faceplate. Most people would lean in close and leer out of some twisted curiosity to see her face, even though it was nothing special amongst her people. Shepard, on the other hand, just seemed to do it to make eye contact, like any other quarian would. He was the only human who ever treated her that way.

Now those eyes carried with them a pain like she had never seen before. Shepard always went to any length to protect his people, no matter what. He always did the right thing by them. That both comforted and terrified Tali, because now she needed him to do the opposite. During the entire flight back from the _Alarei_, he tried feverishly to convince her to reveal the truth, convinced that they could find a way to exonerate her without sparking a civil war in the Flotilla. But she couldn't risk it. There was too much at stake.

In her mind, it made sense. Her reputation, and possibly her life were a reasonable sacrifice for the fleet. But she knew Shepard saw it differently. In his mind, he was sacrificing two of the things which mattered the most: his own honor, and that of a friend. Ordinarily, he would have died before giving up either. He glanced at her, his eyes confused, hurt, but with the resilience of a man who had done hundreds of things he didn't want to do because duty demanded it. But which way would that sense of duty take him now?

She held her breath as her commander stepped towards waiting Admirals. She opened a private comm link. "Shepard, please..."

Admiral Raan's voice was calm. "Does Captain Shepard have any new evidence to submit to this hearing?"

Shepard's fists clenched at his sides he raised his head to look at the admirals. "We found nothing on the _Alarei_ that we wish to submit as evidence."

Tali closed her eyes and let out her breath. The entire chamber fell silent. All of the admirals on the board activated their omni-tools to cast their votes, except one.

"Tali?" Admiral Han'Gerrel stared at her in disbelief. Could the human captain be acting against her wishes?

Shepard looked over his shoulder to Tali at Gerrel's shocked exclamation. Rael'Zorah's oldest, and most trusted friend was giving her one last chance for her to tell her side of the story, to say what really happened on the doomed research ship. _Take it,_ Shepard's eyes pleaded. _Please!_

"I have nothing to say," Tali was in a daze. She hardly even heard the words over her own thoughts, or noticed Admiral Gerrel reluctantly keyed in his vote after each of the admirals had already done so. The future of the fleet, at least for the foreseeable future, had been saved.

The only thing she saw was Shepard lowering his head upon hearing her sentence, ashamed as if he had cast the deciding vote himself.

* * *

Tali leaned her head against the Kodiak's window and watched ships of all shapes and tonnages slip by. There was the _Hartono_, the massive elcor bulk freighter that had been converted to living quarters for over eight thousand quarian families. The _Zaggorn_, a hanar bioship, essentially a gigantic, cylindrical space-going aquarium which now stored water for almost a quarter of the Flotilla. Then they passed the _Olionna_, a passenger liner used during the earliest days of the Geth Uprising to evacuate quarians from Rannoch. It made dozens of trips to the surface and back, carrying countless thousands of quarians to what was supposed to be temporary refuge until the homeworld could be reclaimed. It had yet to make that final return voyage home. She shifted in her seat and pushed a worn fabric sack further under her chair with her legs, the single memento from the Fleet she chose to bring with her into exile. Everything else that she could call her own was already on the _Normandy._

Looking aft, she saw a giant white crescent moon receding behind them. The, _Rayya_, her birthship, it's giant biodome slowly spinning, giving the massive ship the impression it was rolling through space. She felt a hand tugging at her wrist. Garrus, in the seat next to her, reached across her lap for her omnitool. He'd been talking for some time, she realized, but she hadn't heard a word of it.

"That ship was crawling with geth," Garrus said. "There's no way your father didn't know what was going on. You collected half a dozen data logs. Surely you must have found something. Maybe you should let me take a look at them. I don't know, maybe we can call for a mistrial or something."

Tali pushed his hand away and turned back to the window. "There's nothing in them."

"We cannot give up," Garrus said. "Commander, are you really going to stand by and let them do this to her?"

Shepard glared at the turian from across the aisle on the aft bench. "It's out of my hands, Garrus. Leave it alone"

"But, Shepard-"

"I said let it go."

Tali looked at Shepard and their eyes met briefly. She mouthed 'thank you,' even though he couldn't see it because of the infernal mask she was forced to wear around any other species. But it was too late. Shepard's shifted his gaze out the window looking forward, his face empty and defeated.

"Well," Garrus put his hand on Tali's knee. "For what it's worth, I'm glad they're letting you stay with us. The ship wouldn't be the same without you. You're a credit to the name."

"Thank you," Tali sniffed. Once again, she tried to meet Shepard's eyes with her own, but he stayed focused on the view out the window.

"Rolston," Shepard asked, "What's our ETA?"

The pilot sounded disappointed. "Ah, thirty-five minutes, sir. We're having keep it well under max V because of Migrant Fleet navigational regulations."

"All right, don't get us pulled over." Shepard's brow furrowed as if deep in thought. "Excuse me," he said and before walking forward to the cockpit.

Garrus shook his head as he watched the Commander go, an astonished look on his face. "What is happening here?"

Tali sighed and turned back to the window. The shuttle's trajectory had carried the _Rayya _out of view. She wondered briefly if she would ever see it again. She closed her eyes with a heavy sigh as exhaustion finally delivered a peace she knew she wasn't likely to find anywhere else.

When she opened her eyes again, Garrus was shaking her shoulder. "Hey," he said. "We're back."

Tali looked out the window to see the wall of _Normandy_'_s_ hangar. _So begins the first day of exile,_ she thought. Though compared to others who suffered the same fate, she had to admit she could have ended up somewhere much, much worse. She leaned down to pick up her sack, then stood and walked towards the shuttle's equipment locker in the aft compartment.

Shepard stood and rotated his right arm and shoulder. "Leave it," he said, referring to their stowed gear. "We'll get it later. I want to get out of this suit."

"Me too," Garrus said with a loud sigh, sounding uncharacteristically defeated compared to his earlier fire. "Been a long day."

"Aye, sir," Tali stepped towards the exit and opened the hatch. All she wanted to do was get back to her quarters, throw herself on the bed and cry herself to sleep. The last thing she wanted to do was break down in front of Shepard, or worse, Garrus. She'd never hear the end of it. She jumped down the stairs to the deck and hurried towards the elevator with her eyes downcast when a wall of sound stopped her in her tracks. At first she thought her exterior microphones had shorted out with white noise, until she saw the source in front of her.

Standing between her and the elevator stood the entire company and crew of the _Normandy _in dress uniforms for the Cerberus side and whatever passed for formal for the squad. And they were all applauding. She turned around to see what they could be cheering for to see Shepard and Garrus coming up behind her, both with smiles on their face. Shepard pointed upwards and aft, motioning for the confused quarian to follow his gaze. Across the pane glass windows overlooking the hangar deck hung a giant banner, written in two-meter tall khelish script: "Welcome Home Tali'Zorah vas Normandy"

"Keelah," Tali murmured and clutched her bag to her chest as as she was suddenly surrounded by wide open arms smiling faces. The men and women of the ship hugged her and patted her on the back, rotating as efficiently ships of the Migrant Fleet on maneuver, until a loud, piercing voice rose above the din.

"All right, everyone," Miranda shouted. "Stand at ease. At ease!" The throng around Tali opened in front of the Cerberus operative, and she approached Tali holding a thin book in her hand. Yeoman Chambers was right behind her, a huge smile on her face.

"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," Miranda said. "it is my duty as executive officer of the vessel whose name you now bear to officially enter your name into the ship's registry." She presented the book she carried to the quarian.

Tali took it into her hands. It was bound with stiff cardboard, with a mottled black and white pattern on its cover. She flipped it open from the back and leafed through dozens of pages of blank graph paper. When she got to the front, a taped-in page unfurled, containing a list of hand scrawled words in languages she couldn't begin to recognize, next to quarian labels translating them into names she would never forget.

"It's actually one of Mordin's lab books," Kelly smiled. "It's the best we could come up with on such short notice."

"No, it's wonderful." Tali whispered, trying to keep her hands from shaking as she looked over the roster. "Absolutely perfect!"

"Not yet," Shepard said over her shoulder. He pointed at the page near the top. "Looks like we're missing somebody. It's not official until you sign in. Anybody got a pen?"

Kelly bowed her head and produced a disposable ball-point. "Allow me, ma'am," she said as she traded it to Tali for the book and held it open for her.

Tali looked where Shepard had been pointing. Five spaces down was a blank line next to the name "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy" in a quarian font. She paused briefly to look at the names above. Commander Shepard, Joker, Doctor Chakwas and Garrus had signed above, all members of the original crew of the SR-1. Below were the rest of the SR-2 crew and squad in the order they joined.

Tali choked back a sob with a joyous laugh. "Of course you had to put me under Garrus."

"Where you belong," Garrus shrugged. "I've got at least three day's seniority."

The echo of laughter died and the hangar fell silent as the quarian signed into the makeshift ledger. Miranda took the book from Kelly's hand and inspected it as if she could read the alien script. She nodded to Shepard, then actually smiled at Tali. "Welcome aboard, Miss vas Normandy," she said, and handed the notebook to the stunned engineer. "It's yours to keep."

A deafening cheer filled the compartment, and once again Tali was surrounded by dozens of arms alternately hugging her or slapping her on the back. They came and went so fast she could hardly see who had grabbed her next, until one particular person held on a little too long.

"Is your suit pressurized ma'am," Kenneth said as he caressed her back, "because it feels very firm in the hind quarters!"

"Dammit Ken!" Gabby pinched the Scotsman by his ear and yanked downward, and he released his grip immediately. "Don't ruin this!"

"Ach," Ken said, doubled over. "What're ya doin', woman? You 'bout pulled the whole bloody lobe off!"

Gabby shoved her partner aside and gave Tali a solid hug, which the quarian tearfully returned. "I'm so glad you're back, boss!" The human said as she squeezed, then released so the next person in line could advance. "I couldn't handle going back to just me and him!"

Tali laughed as she found herself looking up into green skin and pitch black eyes. She used to find the drell's appearance frightening, but having gotten to know Thane the past few months, she could not remember meeting anyone as polite and urbane, no matter the circumstances. "Miss vas Normandy," he said with a slight bow. "Your predecessor was truly irreplaceable. But I know you will do her, and your namesake, proud in our continued journeys."

"Thank you, Thane," Tali said, keeping her distance because she knew of the drell's need for personal space.

"Lame," said the next voice, and the debonair assassin's form was replaced with a pale, bald human. Jack chewed loudly on a piece of the strange rubbery pink material humans seemed to enjoy and blew a bubble which burst in a loud SNAP directly in front of Tali's faceplate. "Shepard's making all of us do this," She smacked her gum and turned away. "Welcome back, bucket-head."

Tali laughed. Even the resident thug's acerbic attitude couldn't bring her down from the high she felt as she was instantly replaced by another one of her ship mates welcoming her aboard. Joker, Chakwas, Mordin, Kasumi, Jacob... even the grouchy mercenary Zaeed came by to shake her hand, and the diminutive quarian squealed out of fear and delight when she disappeared into Grunt's giant krogan-hug.

As the last of the crew offered their congratulations, Shepard held his hand up to the waiting crowd. "Okay people, listen up! Quiet! Quiet, everybody. The Admiralty Board has given us sixty minutes after returning, to, and I quote, 'vacate the sovereign space of the Migrant Fleet.'"

A chorus of boos thundered through the hangar. Tali's smile disappeared from her face as she stared at the deck.

"So," Shepard continued and looked at his watch. "For the next... Fifty-three minutes and twenty-one seconds, the lounge is OPEN. Everyone is invited to drink a toast to our new Chief Engineer, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy! I'm buying!"

Cheers once again filled the compartment, followed by a mad rush to the elevator and stairwells. It didn't take long before Tali was left standing alone with Shepard and Garrus in front of the Kodiak.

"Just for the record," Garrus said, "this was all my idea."

Shepard's expression changed to one of disbelief usually reserved for talking to the Citadel Council. "Oh, get the fuck out of here with that bullshit! You didn't do a damn thing!"

"Well I would have, if I had known about it sooner."

"I called from the shuttle! You were too busy trying to hack into Tali's omnitool while she was asleep."

Tali stomped her foot. "Garrus!"

"He makes it sound so underhanded," Garrus said. "It was professional curiosity. The casework on this investigation seemed a little shaky..."

Tali glared at him. "You touch my omnitool again and I swear they won't find all of you until this ship goes in for its hundred year refit."

Garrus grunted and headed for the line waiting for the elevator. "Message received. Good to have you back, Tali."

"Gods I swear he does this on purpose," Tali said through clenched teeth.

"I think he would have missed you more than anybody."

Tali looked back at Shepard. He'd taken off his helmet and his face glistened with sweat, covered with creases from where the pads kept the headgear secured. He watched the entire display with a small smile on his face. As hard as she tried, she couldn't stop herself. She opened her arms and pulled him close, bumping her faceplate against his armor. Shepard returned the embrace, rocking her slowly back and forth where they stood.

"I don't know what to say," Tali gasped.

"Welcome home, Tali," Shepard said, which made Tali squeeze hard enough he could almost feel it through his suit.

She pulled back and almost tripped on the bag at her feet. Shepard steadied her and reached down to pick it up. It did not seem very full. "This all they let you bring back with you?" he asked.

"What? Oh... No. Everything I own is already here. Uh..." she took the bag from him and tried to hold onto crew registry book while she dug into the sack. "Um, this... Uh..." her hands were shaking again as she tried to pull the bag from around the object within. "It's customary that when a new crew member joins a ship that she presents her captain with a gift. Ordinarily, this happens when you come back from pilgrimage, but we just came back from the trial and they were kicking us out and I didn't have any time to find anything really spectacular, so I- I had to-"

When she stopped to take a breath, Shepard pulled the sack away, revealing a plain brown card-stock box. He took it from her, once again trading the notebook.

"It's really nothing," Tali said, clasping the ship's registry as he opened the box. "But I know you like models, and..."

Shepard produced a toy ship from within, a scale model of the quarian transport ship commonly seen throughout the fleet. He held onto it with one hand and gave the thick vertical ring at the bow a spin. The carousel spun freely on its hub, as the real life counterpart would do to generate gravity. It was made of metal and plastic with chipped paint and scratches, having been handed down for generations. _But,_ he thought, _considering where it came from, that just makes it more authentic. _He smiled at her. "I love it, Tali. I've got the perfect spot for it. Thank you."

Tali beamed. Her throat constricted tight and she couldn't have uttered another word if her life depended on it.

"Come on," Shepard said with the model ship in one hand, and his other gently guiding Tali towards the elevator's queue. "Let me buy you a drink, Miss vas Normandy."

* * *

_The End_


End file.
